this would be the one that doesn't
if there is a tapestry, there is a hind
any of various spotted groupers, the dictionary tells us
does that help?
she wraps herself in layers of the finest wool
the morning is gray
there is no palm tree in her imagination
if he has a novel, it is a Western
suit cheap in the way it's shiny
heat comes from the palm
her back arches just above the swell
the planes come in low, full of packages
if there is
the head is a weapon, hardly fashioned
the eye rolls in its velvet
sun on the ridge
sun on the water
the candidate was nodding solemnly
if there is a tapestry, there is a hind
Claudia La Rocco’s recent collaborative work includes projects with the performance company Findlay//Sandsmark, the choreographers Rashaun Mitchell and Silas Riener and the composer Phillip Greenlief. She is a member of the Off the Park poetry press, contributes frequently to the New York Times and Artforum.com and teaches at the School of Visual Arts and Princeton University. She runs the PerformanceClub.org, which won a 2011 Creative Capital/Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant and focuses on criticism as a literary art form. A book of her selected writings will be published by Badlands Unlimited in fall 2014.